YOUR CART

The Book of Thoth should be going to the printers by the end of next week. I am waiting for their quote to finalise everything. Almost done! I hope to have the books delivered on time for the events I will attend in November, but what I really want is for everything to go smoothly. I fret about this book much more than the first one. Did we get the cover dimensions right? What about the spine? Is the book good enough? Shall I change that word here on page 267? What about that one? Does this sound weird or a bit amateurish?I love the cover design, which is the exact opposite of what the cover of traditionally published Gothic Novels look like, i.e a lot of black and swirly bits here and there, maybe the silhouette of a crumbling mansion and some Tim-Burtonesque trees with twisted branches. I've gone for mostly white with a nod to the era the story is mostly set in: the 20s. Everything Egyptian came back into fashion at that time, especially after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter in 1922. So it felt natural to add some Egyptian gods and rituals and also some hieroglyphics!

I started work on The Book of Thoth in January 2011, straight away after completing the first draft of my debut novel I Am a Muse. I had set myself a challenge: to write a Gothic novel with a few twists to the genre. I have used all the conventions of the Gothic novel that were on my list - bar "magical" numbers. Not sure why. Then I have added quite a few more items that are not traditionally considered as being motifs of the Gothic genre: time travel, flappers, male anorexia, depression, Google maps... There is even a bit of Downton Abbey in there somewhere when the action moves to the kitchen and the servant quarters!

It was quite a challenge to write The Book of Thoth whilst editing I Am a Muse, submitting it to agents and publishers, working, trying to set up a small imprint, learning about how to be a publisher, living... I actually finished the manuscript only in January this year! I have been editing it since then. I think I have nailed it now. I think. Maybe. I re-read it one last time last week and liked it (it stands at 384 pages though, so it's definitively not a novella!), which I take as a positive sign. I do not write to try and win literary prizes, so you will not find any fancy prose in my books. I focus on the characters and the story, include small details I think would work nicely.I just hope people will enjoy reading the book!

I cannot wait to hold a copy in my hands, but until I do, I will carry on worrying about things going wrong.

To take my mind off it, I will start working in earnest on my third book, The Right Place. I have a lot of plotting and research to do before I get started on the writing again... A new page, a brand new chapter...